Nascar and Racing Mark Martin

Notes, quotes & commentary from a NASCAR weekend at Talladega.

What a weekend it was, huh? Yes, I do have some comments and ideas about the overall product at Talladega this week. I'm going to wait, though, until the end of this post. First, the finer notes on Sunday.

Can anyone make sense of NASCAR's pit road penalties? Had Sunday's race been at another track where track position isn't so easily gained like it is at Talladega, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and eventual race winner Jamie McMurray would have been downright hosed.

And good or bad as it relates to your particular driver, the rule that nabbed them just isn't fair.

Where: Talladega Superspeedway
Time: Sunday 1:00 p.m. EST
TV/Radio: ABC, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Sunny, High 60s
Distance: 188 laps (500 miles)
Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson
2008 Winner: Tony Stewart

Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?

And cheering against the New York Yankees doesn't count.

Another superb run in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship has put Jimmie Johnson in position for a historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. He's on the verge of accomplishing something Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon never did.

And for all his hard work and performance under pressure here's the thanks he gets: people are accusing him of stinking up the show.

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Where: Martinsville Speedway
Time: Sunday 1:30 p.m. EST
TV/Radio: ABC, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Mostly sunny, High 60s
Distance: 500 laps (263 miles)
Pole Winner: Ryan Newman
2008 Winner: Jimmie Johnson

CONCORD, N.C. -- Steady rain kept cars off the track for most of the day at Lowe's Motor Speedway but there was plenty going on in the garage area prior to a scheduled rain-delayed, late-night qualifying session Thursday.

FanHouse is trackside this weekend for the Banking 500, race 5 of the 10-week Chase for the Championship, and caught up with the Chase drivers as they waited out the weather.

Jeff Gordon talked about his back, Carl Edwards announced he's going to be a father and Greg Biffle updated us on his Logano family feud and what he thinks of Michael Vick's return to the NFL.

Jeff Gordon gave Jimmie Johnson a handshake in victory lane to congratulate his teammate on yet another win, but really, it just symbolized what most NASCAR fans have to be fearing -- it's time to throw in the towel yet again at the feet of King Jimmie.

Johnson led 126 of 250 laps in Sunday's Pepsi 500 in Fontana, Calif., and overcame a dramatic final 20 laps that saw him bounced from the lead by Gordon. No matter. Johnson shot back by just a few laps later and then ran away from the field for the win.

It wasn't a surprise, really, that Johnson won. But it's a surprise to realize that pending crazy circumstances, there's not a team in NASCAR that can top the No. 48.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Tony Stewart didn't have time for a debate. He had one last chance to grab the win at Kansas Speedway, and it came down to one critical decision.

Two tires, or four?

The two-time series champion asked for two on the final pit stop Sunday, and crew chief Darian Grubb immediately agreed with the strategy. The rapid thinking got Stewart the race lead, and he held on over the final 26 laps for his fourth win of the season.

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NASCAR has warned the teams of championship leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson that their Chevrolets were dangerously close to failing post-race inspection last week at Dover, Del., where the three-time defending series champion Johnson won the race and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin finished runner-up.

Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus cautioned that there was no wrong-doing, no intent to do wrong and that the attention this is receiving is mostly media sensationalism.

"The cars were legal, that's the thing everybody has to understand,'' Knaus said Friday from this week's Sprint Cup Series venue, Kansas Speedway. "It's turned into a bigger issue than what it really should."

It took just 3 hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of racing action Sunday at Dover International Speedway to allow "Superman" to reassert his dominance over NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.

Jimmie Johnson pounded the field around the concrete one-mile oval for his fifth career win at Dover and fourth of the season to take home the AAA 400 trophy. Johnson led some 271 laps and never looked back despite late cautions that brought the competition back to his bumper three times in final 100 laps.

In doing so, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus served notice that they don't expect a change from recent years at the celebration following the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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DOVER, Del. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson dominated again in a Chase race, sweeping the season races at Dover International Speedway to accelerate his bid for an unprecedented fourth straight Sprint Cup title.

Johnson cut Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin's points lead Sunday with the victory -- his fourth of the year and 44th overall -- in the second of 10 races in the Chase for the championship.

"I'm pretty sure that dude is Superman,'' Martin said. "I've seen that dude up close and I see why he's so successful. He works harder at it than anybody else, I think, on the circuit.''

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